


Let's try again

by CaptainCiella



Category: Free!
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, Dating, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, High School, Long-Distance Friendship, Long-Distance Relationship, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:21:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28391598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainCiella/pseuds/CaptainCiella
Summary: He promised he’ll keep in touch with letters every month and he’ll come back very soon for celebrations.He didn’t.
Relationships: Kirishima Natsuya/Reader
Kudos: 7





	Let's try again

They’re joined at the hip since their childhood, from living next door to attending the same nursery school to secondary school. Their parents are acquaintances and naturally, their children befriended through neighbours meetings and parties thrown soon after they moved in soon after their child was born. It was all-natural they became friends through playing together in the same sandpit with other children they soon formed a group, soon attending the same schools, the closest of the neighbourhood so they could come back home together after their club activities. Though they didn’t choose the same one, they would wait for each other to walk home together, stopping by a vending machine for refreshments and sit down at the park’s bench to complain about their classes — to finally walk home by the sunset. This routine would go on until they choose to separate for university and promising to meet once a year for celebrations.  
  
He broke the routine sooner than expected, flying to America to follow his dreams, leaving the comfort of his home, a part of his youth with his friends and family to experience a whole new world on the other side of the ocean. He promised he’ll keep in touch with letters every month and he’ll come back very soon for celebrations.  
  
He didn’t.  
  


  
•

  
  
When he came back a few years later, he was a complete stranger. Still recognisable by his signature dishevelled brown hair and earnest hazel eyes but if it were to have a conversation with him, everything had changed from his voice tone to the way he expressed himself, more mature and more poised as if he wanted to catch up all the time they didn’t spend together in each one of his words, trying to forgive himself from not sending letters nor coming back for celebrations as promised. Things have changed ever since the small group of friends wasn’t as tightly knit as it used to be, some choosing different high schools, aiming higher or choosing vocational courses. Nevertheless, they stayed loyal to their friendship and met up a few times a month in a fast-food or in the library to pretend study for their exams. Despite not keeping in touch through letters or phone calls for almost two years, he soon reintegrated the group, though it had been awkward at first because he couldn’t catch all the references and jokes. As soon as he got them, it had been as though he’d been with them forever, as though he’d never went to America, as though time and distance never existed.  
  
  
She’s the one he had to get to know again. From her favourite desserts to her least favourite book to her habits, she’s the one who was the stranger to him — and it was reciprocated. The days when he used to open his window to ask her a question about homework or just talk late at night felt like belonging to someone else. She resented him for not writing nor calling her then pretend as if nothing happened — indeed _nothing happened_ but she was his friend, living next door, their parents were good friends and regularly giving news of their son but she felt so excluded from his life when he made sure nothing would change between them. Everything changed and she was the only one who saw how things were different from what they used to be.  
  
Nevertheless, she came to appreciate the new person he was, relearning his likes and dislikes, getting to know parts of his life she missed, recalling their childhood together in between anecdotes, exploring his dreams and ambitions and sharing hers, meeting for the first time again but then soon acting as children around each other as if in the end, nothing had changed. Newness and unknown soon blossomed from a new friendship to a crush — to mutual love without them clearly realising the familiarity of the feeling they had unbeknownst to them a few years ago. From small and discreet pecks innocently exchanged between classes to wet and bold kisses under the bedsheets tasting sweat and chlorine, they smelled youth love, the one that is pure and seems everlasting as if it were an awaken dream.  
  
Every dream comes to an end, however pleasant it is. _It’s a story_ , he liked to say, _we’re our own protagonists_ , though cheesy and so unlike of him. _We’re not a dream_ , they’re masters of their life and their relationship; and they decided to write the ending of their story, hesitantly as they never imagined it. Messy and reluctant as they didn’t want to put it on hold despite their paths diverging after graduation. _Distance already killed us once_ , they say, rationally convincing themselves that it is the best choice for both of them. Their break-up kiss is the strongest counter-argument to their decision, but closing their eyes on it is far the best choice overall.  
  
She’s a rather clingy person, more than he expected, always yearning to spend time with him after school, regardless of how worn out he is. Sometimes, he found it annoying but going abroad again, he realised that it's only when she's around that he finds a moment of peace and calm. He misses their bubble they built in-between exams revisions, endless conversations during dates and so-called _studies of the human anatomy_. They’re sometimes birds that flock together but also opposites attract, always dealing with their characters, finding a deal-breaker and agree to disagree — the worse and the best match at the same time. Distance indeed killed them, constantly recalling the bitter taste of their goodbye, the reassuring warmth of each other’s presence and their compatible incompatibility. There’s a time for regrets and a desire to go back in time and never kiss goodbye.  
  
  
When he comes back home after a year, the taste of a promise welcomes him in the airport.

**Author's Note:**

> Had this in my folders since June 2020 and never posted it and here I am.
> 
> You didn't think I'd end the year without posting about Natsuya? ahah. I love him so much


End file.
